Online voter registration dies at the hands of Harris County Republicans

I knew this was going to happen but it depresses me anyway. From Houston Chronicle reporters Brian M. Rosenthal and Gabrielle Banks:

Harris County officials kill bill to allow online voter registration

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan, a Republican whose job includes being the county voter registrar, denied that politics played any role in his position. He also denied that officials had organized a unified effort to derail the bill.

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Another official from Harris County, Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a former tax assessor-collector, has said he, too, would oppose online voter registration for now.

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(Harris County Clerk Stan) Stanart also defended the reason for Harris County leading the charge against online voter registration.

Where do I start? As a Republican Precinct Chair in Harris County, it is embarrassing that the leaders of my party continue to try to limit voter registration. And that is exactly what they are doing by opposing online registration. I mentioned here that Sullivan had helped author the Harris County Republican Party resolution opposing online registration. The wild claims of fraud thrown out by the chair of the committee that pushed that resolution do not match the evidence that online voter registration is safer and cheaper than our current system.

That is nonsense. Sullivan isn’t breaking a campaign promise at all. In fact, he has implemented new technology in the office and the annexes are much faster than before he took office. He is doing a great job as Tax Assessor Collector. Not implementing online voter registration is not the same because that is a political issue, albeit one which I disagree with him. The editorial board could have done a better job in stating their opposition to Sullivan’s views without misleading their readers.

Sullivan is a smart guy. I’m quite sure that he saw what happened to the last Republican Tax Assessor Collector that tried to make registering to vote easier. When Leo Vasquez was appointed to replace Paul Bettencourt, he did the unthinkable – he directed his voter registration outreach efforts to all areas, not just the white suburbs. I recall going to voter registration drives in the Third Ward, Denver Harbor, and Barrett Station with Vasquez and his staff. These are certainly not traditional Republican areas. But Vasquez was under the impression that he worked for all of the citizens of Harris County.

And what did he get for his trouble? He got booted out in the primary. I talked to many voters that were angry that he tried to expand voter registration. And the only voters that matter to Republicans are primary voters. I’m guessing that Sullivan and his political consultant learned from Vasquez that reaching out to all voters isn’t necessarily the best thing to do if you want to win a Republican primary.

And now for a real life example of why we need online voter registration. You may or may not be aware that I am running for council in my little city of Shoreacres. I also happen to be the precinct chair for the area. As I block walked, I talked to several people that were clearly concerned about the direction of the city and were clearly conservative. But they had never registered to vote. So I told one couple that I would drop off voter registration cards to them and they could register and vote in future elections.

Well, I drove down to the public library to pick up the cards and guess what? They only had one card left. I took it and dropped it off, telling them I would find another one later.

Now, wouldn’t it have been easier if those two could have simply gone online and registered?

And guess what? The Republican Party would have had two new voters.

But hey. Let’s keep it hard to register because we don’t want them pesky libruls voting!